Title: Requiem (Delirium #3)
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: 21st March 2013
Length: 10 hours 9 minutes
Listened to in November 2016
Synopsis: Goodreads
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight. After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.
As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.
My Review:
The Book
Okay, I’m going to start this review out, pretty negatively and there may be spoilers for the first two in the series. I didn’t like this book. The ending of Pandemonium left me itching for this book, I was craving it. I needed to know what happened. You can’t just put a bombshell on us – Alex. What. How! Yeah… Well throughout this book I hated the fact he was back. I was so happy he had somehow survived, and I thought that it was going to be a great story. Instead both Lena and Alex turn into completely different characters.
Lena just becomes whiny and piny (not even sure that’s real way to describe her, but there we go). She has this great boy, Julian, and she just does a complete u-turn on him because Alex showed up! All the while Julian is still in love with Lena and is learning this new life style just to be with her. I just. I’m angry okay. I hate the way Lena treats Julian, I hate the way she pines for a guy whose first reintroduction to the series is quite a negative one. I just found myself really disappointed in them. To the point where, I’m going to move on. I don’t want to spend this review talking about what I didn’t like. So…
Hana is back! And I loved her side of things! I loved seeing things from the side of a cured. It was so weird, but honestly wonderful to read (or well listen to I suppose). I liked seeing her battle with the knowledge that something wasn’t right, and even battle with the knowledge that something wasn’t right with a member of Lena’s family, an innocent in everything that just got swept up in the madness. It was interesting to see her. I’m glad she was included with her own POV in this book, rather than just as a character we saw every now and then. Thank you, Oliver, for at least giving us that.
The Reading
So, I didn’t like the book. Saving grace, Sarah Drew. By the time I’d hit book three I loved the way she was telling the story. And in this one she was delivering two point of views! And they were great! I could tell when it was a Hana scene and when it was a Lena scene and I thought both were effective. I enjoyed listening to the book, even though I didn’t really like what I was hearing.
Overall
I’ve given it 4 stars, much like I gave Pandemonium an extra star for the narration, I’ve done the same here. I honestly feel as the series just fell flat for me in the end. Which I’m really disappointed in. I think it’s still a good story, so by all means read it and enjoy the world. But I just couldn’t get on with the characters in the final book. So sadly, I felt let down and won’t be returning this world.
“Love is a kind of possession. It’s a poison.”
The Reading Pile 